Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, wants a more elegant and user-friendly Linux-Desktop for it's users. In a full blown statement at this year’s OSCON, Ubuntu grounder Mark Shuttleworth proclaimed: ‘'The great task in front of us over the next two years is to lift the experience of the Linux desktop from something that is stable and robust and not so pretty, into something that is art'’.

How exactly he hopes to achieve this is explained on his blog: ''We're hiring designers, user experience champions and interaction design visionaries'' and he adds, ''With help from the experts, we'll make a unified desktop- experience happen.''

In effect he wants a team of X, OpenGL, Gtk, Qt, GNOME and KDE specialists to work on the project. The new team will work closely with the Upstream software developers but will be totally independent from Ubuntu's regular team, who will concentrate on the core business of integration and distribution of Ubuntu's software.

Shuttleworth admits it’ll be difficult to get everyone together on this. Too many aims and objectives are colliding. He agrees it will be a process of trial and error, but he's sure the challenge can, and will, be met.

The Budapest Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS-O) kicked off on Monday, May 9, at the Corinthia Hotel. "Accessibility is one of our core values as a project," Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth said in his keynote address, as he acknowledged the Unity documentation team contributions to the 11.04 release. After briefly looking back at the "Natty Narwhal" Ubuntu release, Shuttleworth set his sights on the upcoming release, saying, "Our goal, our mission is 200-million Ubuntu users in four years."